the tide came back Rooke and his two hundred boats.  The enemy made a faint attempt to defend the vessels which were near Fort Saint Vaast.  During a few minutes the batteries did some execution among the crews of our skiffs; but the struggle was soon over.  The French poured fast out of their ships on one side; the English poured in as fast on the other, and, with loud shouts, turned the captured guns against the shore.  The batteries were speedily silenced.  James and Melfort, Bellefonds and Tourville, looked on in helpless despondency while the second conflagration proceeded.  The conquerors, leaving the ships of war in flames, made their way into an inner basin where many transports lay.  Eight of these vessels were set on fire.  Several were taken in tow.  The rest would have been either destroyed or carried off, had not the sea again begun to ebb.  It was impossible to do more, and the victorious flotilla slowly retired, insulting the hostile camp with a thundering chant of “God save the King.”

Thus ended, at noon on the twenty-fourth of May, the great conflict which had raged during five days over a wide extent of sea and shore.  One English fireship had perished in its calling.  Sixteen French men of war, all noble vessels, and eight of them three-deckers, had been sunk or burned down to the keel.  The battle is called, from the place where it terminated, the battle of La Hogue.269

The news was received in London with boundless exultation.  In the fight on the open sea, indeed, the numerical superiority of the allies had been so great that they had little reason to boast of their success.  But the courage and skill with which the crews of the English boats had, in a French harbour, in sight of a French army, and under the fire of French batteries, destroyed a fine French fleet, amply justified the pride with which our fathers pronounced the name of La Hogue.  That we may fully enter into their feelings, we must remember that this was the first great check that had ever been given to the arms of Lewis the Fourteenth, and the first great victory that the English had gained over the French since the day of Agincourt.  The stain left on our fame by the shameful defeat of Beachy Head was effaced.  This time the glory was all our own.  The Dutch had indeed done their duty, as they have always done it in maritime war, whether fighting on our side or against us, whether victorious or vanquished.  But the English had borne the brunt of the fight.  Russell who commanded in chief was an Englishman.  Delaval who directed the attack on Cherburg was an Englishman.  Rooke who led the flotilla into the Bay of La Hogue was an Englishman.  The only two officers of note who had fallen, Admiral Carter and Captain Hastings of the Sandwich, were Englishmen.  Yet the pleasure with which the good news was received here must not be ascribed solely or chiefly to national pride.  The island was safe.  The pleasant pastures, cornfields and commons of Hampshire and Surrey